Thursday, June 11, 2009

Business Startup: act like you are on tour

When I was in college, I played bass in a rock band. My interest in bass has led me to follow for many years the blog of bassist Tony Levin.

Recently he posted about his latest tour in Europe. Remarking on packing for the tour, he says, "the main effort on small band tours like this is to keep your bags (2 at most) each under 50 pounds, to avoid airline overweight charges. We've all gotten pretty good at it, so there are a lot of 49 pound suitcases, and of course, they have no limit on weight of carryon bags, so maybe the compressor and a box of cd's will go into that --- I'll regret it on the long airport walks, but after 4 or 5 flights we'll have saved a lot of extra charges.

Being on tour teaches you to be careful and avoid those $50 bag charges.

Likewise as a startup, every dollar is precious - and if you are not careful - you too will be socked with the equivalent of overweight charges - whether overnight shipping costs, fancy desks, or whatever.

Try to consider your business as if it is on tour: what are the essentials?

Note also that musicians don't fail to bring key equipment - compressors, pedals, whatever - that they must have to do their work. Even if that makes their bag heavy. They spend on the necessary, not on the desirable. There may be key tools or software you need for your business - get and use them.

Plus if you consider your startup as a band on tour, it might even have benefits for the team and comraderie.